Regional Aid
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-10
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Ged Nash (LAB), Louth

It is one weapon in our armoury. There is no doubt about that but we need to take a varied approach to this. Another initiative, which was announced in the budget last year, was the transitioning of the derelict sites levy to a derelict sites tax. By definition, the responsibility for the collection of that tax will be given to the Revenue Commissioners. I have been campaigning for that for years; it makes sense. I always made the point that business owners who can afford to allow a building to become vacant and derelict must be quite wealthy because owners need to sweat every single asset they have to make sure their business is successful. Sometimes the only language that people understand is the brown envelope with the harp on it containing a tax demand. It is important we introduce that as quickly as possible.
I am a bit confounded as to why it will take so long to introduce the tax, or transition from the levy to the tax. We have a very sophisticated system in Revenue. We could set up a very complex wage subsidy scheme practically overnight thanks to the expertise of officials in Revenue, the Department of Finance and elsewhere, with the support of IBEC, ICTU and so on. I am confounded as to why the derelict sites tax will take so long to introduce.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-10